#length: 100k-150k

[dailysonadowfanfics]

Reading every single Sonadow Fanfic (Ao3): 159/4.705

Title: My Way

Author: Cubricot

Website: Ao3

Published: 11.03.2018

Word Count: 119.113 words

Language: English

Suited for minors? Teen and up

Warnings: Violence

Smut? No

Finished? Yes

Characters: Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Miles Tails Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Rouge the Bat, Silver the Hedgehog, Gadget the Wolf

Ships: Sonic/Shadow

Author Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Implied/Referenced Torture, Humor, Mental Health Issues, Angst, maybe some background Espio/Silver, "We'll be fine", Slow Burn, No Classic Sonic? Game: Sonic Forces, POV Multiple, Unleashed-style tour of the planet fighting Eggman

Author Summary: Two months after Sonic fell to Infinite, the resistance rescues him from the Death Egg and brings him to their hideout aboard the space colony ARK. But Amy’s overworked, Knuckles thinks he shouldn’t be commander, Tails is losing sleep worrying, Shadow’s lost his immortality - and when Eggman discovers where the resistance is hiding only a desperate battle in space to blow up the Death Egg before the ARK’s shields fall can save them-

Oh yeah, and Sonic has to keep fighting Infinite, of course. No big deal, right? Right. Just facing his fears, just like how he’s not thinking about anything that happened on the Death Egg, and not thinking about his feelings for Shadow.

My summary: This takes place during forces. There is a war, Sonic is still dealing with the torture he went under, Shadow becomes mortal, and he and Sonic are growing closer during all this.

You can read it here

[inklingofadream]

[id: a post that reads: things books with 100,000 words or more are good for (generally):

kindling

the toilet paper shortage of 2020

paper mache

The tags read "'including the bible'? yes, 'including Lord of the Rings' yes, including game of thrones? GOD yes, i was gonna say epically long flip books but you should be able to make a decent flipbook out of a decent novel, flip books too should be concise, it's called craft, it's called storytelling, it's called sticking to the plot, it's called killing your darlings, it's called having a brutal editor and kissing their feet for the vital work that they do, never have we needed them more" /end id]

someone put this screenshot in my notes and i wasn't gonna put the op on blast but i cannot stop thinking about it. this is up there as one of the funniest doubling downs i've ever seen. "it's called craft. it's called storytelling." is going to enter my meme vernacular and no one is going to have any idea what i'm talking about. the count of monte cristo shows a clear lack of craft in its wordcount. if only ernest hemingway's editor had killed more of his darlings while he wrote for whom the bell tolls. readers and editors alike are always complaining about how fucking long to kill a mockingbird is.

[jessepinwheel]

while the story I'm writing gets longer and longer, let's ask:

this question is asking how long a story needs to be to discourage you from reading, e.g., you wouldn't start it unless someone recommends it to you, or it's so long that you would never reread it

because of the lengths involved, this is going to refer less to individual novels and more to full book series, very long fics, and web novels/web serials

[a-complete-aesthete]

Sir Thomas Lawrence (Bristol 1769-1830 London) and Studio

Portrait of Louisa Montagu, Viscountess Hinchingbrook, later Countess of Sandwich (1781-1862), full-length, as Hope.

Oil on canvas

Priced around 100k-150k , I'd rather buy this than a Tesla. I mean, look at this stunning piece of art! Look at the divine way this woman is painted. The contrast between the dark background and her literal glow is striking, and I love it.

The artist captured more than a woman, but to me, also her soul.

[redux-iterum]

Question for you both. Did you the amount of plot you've condensed surprise you? After all, Tigerstar was the cause of a lot of unnecessary fluff, before and after his death. I can't help but wonder how much stuff is going to be cut and rearranged before you reach the lake lol. -Formerly known as Ravenwing anon, now an anon no longer!

LYNX: Yes and no. A lot of excess fluff in Warriors is due to page-filling exercises of hunting and patrolling and (more relevant to TPB) getting into pointless battles. Time that could've been spent developing characters or culture or going into further detail for the plot. I've yet to see the exact numbers on this, but the core series books are 60k-65k words long, with a full arc being roughly 375k words long. A Kindling is 102k words long, Burning Hearts is 93k, and Charred Legacy is shaping up to be roughly 150k words long, and I have no idea how long the final book will be so I'll just lowball it with 100k words. That's probably going to pan out to 445k words in total, longer than the median length of an arc.

I think Warriors' issues are more of a consequence of focus. They have so much to do, but too little time to do it. I unfortunately wasn't able to read Thunder, but at least from what I heard, Frostpaw developed entirely off-page. Closing out her chapter she is learning to relax and opening up her next she's like, "I KNOW ALL," like, something's missing here. An older example: Into the Wild skips two months from Firepaw joining the Clan to meeting Yellowfang for the first time. The story just tells us he's gotten more acquainted with Thunderclan without letting us see it, preventing us from getting to know his Clanmates and their culture more. Why not develop myths of the Legendary Clans? Why not let Firepaw babysit for Frostfur? Why not let the characters breathe?

Reading a Warriors book feels a lot like being at an airport: hurry up and wait. Hurry along the plot, but then suffer another damn hunting scene shut up shut up shut up no one cares about your stupid mouse this is not relevant to the plot nor interesting in any way.

DULLARD: No longer in the void of anonymity! Welcome!

As for the question, we did actually just cut two chapters for being unnecessary fluff. Those chapters took up an entire subplot in canon and wasted some valuable time. I think you'll figure out which subplot that is once chapters start being posted.

I would say that the changes made to remove fluff aren't what surprised me. Rather, it was the stuff we kept. We largely have the same foundations as canon, just simultaneously condensed and expanded upon. In some areas, we did swap stuff out for something we consider more interesting, but it's remarkable how many things still remain. Granted, they're going to be painted in a different color, but they're still there.

[writewhatyouwanttoread]

Saw a post that really made me doubt my personal measuring system for fic length...

[aliveafterparadise]

this will be nerdy as fuck but i just need to sit with it for a second, okay

the average length of a novel is about 80k-100k words

all together (regardless of whether it's 'mine' or a fanfic), i've written 150k words which is either a super chunky first novel or two smaller novellas mainly consisting of Michael/Lucifer content

who is going to send help

[entitled-fangirl]

Heyyy! I saw your post about thinking about writing a full length novel. For one, super excited for you. It is so rewarding to write a novel and is incredibly worth it if you have an idea that is enough for a novel. For two, I think I may be able to help. (This may be long because I’m about to nerd out a little. I’m not sure what genre you’re writing in, so all of this is just bare-bone thoughts. If you want me to elaborate more on anything, I can and will!)

Here are my credentials: I’ve been writing since elementary school (about 7) and have written 23 short stories, 7 full-length novels, and am currently working on my 8th, which will be the first book in a series. I write primarily coming of age novels, high-stakes fantasy, and cozy, low-stakes romantic fantasy novels, but I’ve dabbled in other genres like mystery, thriller, horror, sci-fi, and contemporary/romance.

Anyhow, my advice for outlining is to start with the basic three-act structure, especially if you’ve never used an actual outlining structure before. The three-act structure is essentially just beginning, middle, and end. Jessica Brody has a beat sheet that takes you through all of the “beats” you need to hit in order to create a well-rounded story. It works pretty great. Her book is called Save the Cat: Writes a Novel, and it’s based on the book Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, which focuses on screenwriting rather than novel writing. She actually has a free copy of her beat sheet on her website with instructions on how to use it. Something that I think is really important to remember when it comes to using a beat sheet is that it is more like a guide or suggestions, not something that you have to strictly follow. Everyone’s writing process is different, so use what works for you and ignore the rest. If you want, I can send another message detailing what my personal outlining process is. I don’t use the three-act structure because it doesn’t really work well for me, but it works for A LOT of people, so it’s worth trying. Instead, I created my own outline using a four-act structure with some parts of other outlines, which works for me (some people call this a Franken-outline or a Frankenstein outline because it’s made up of different outline methods).

As for length, it depends on what you’re talking about, like the length of time in which it takes to write a novel or the length of the book (sorry, I can’t tell which one you meant). For me, I usually work on several projects at once, but the outlining process typically takes a few weeks, maybe less if I have a concrete idea or maybe more if I have a lot of plot development/world building to do (such as the case for my current project). For actually drafting, it takes about 2-3 months for me to write a novel that is between 60-100k. I recommend figuring out a writing schedule that works for you whether that be a daily goal, weekly goal, or simply writing when you feel like it. I’m a college student, so I try to have a strict but forgiving writing schedule that includes a daily or weekly goal of 2-5k words, which depends on how busy I am. That may not be the case for you, and that’s okay. The length of your novel depends on the genre you’re writing in. I recommend looking up the estimate word count or page count for the genre(s) you wish to write in to get a rough idea on how long your book should be (ex: romance is typically 50-90k and fantasy is typically 50-150k), but your word count can be more or less than that. Please remember that your novel does not need to fit into these word counts if it doesn’t work for your project. Something I think a lot of people get stuck on is meeting a specific word count. Please don’t do this T-T. You may go into a project thinking it’s going to be a full-length novel (50–80k) and it turns out to be a novella (17.5–40k), which is fine. Don’t try to make your story what it’s not. Allow it to be what it is because, if it’s written well, it won’t matter if it’s 5k words or 50k words.

I’d also like to touch on character creation a little. I think having character sheet(s) for your main character(s) and the antagonist/villain(s), is important, but I also think it is important to not get caught up on the tiny details that are not really needed. If something like your character’s favorite color or favorite food comes up in the writing/drafting stage, add it to your character sheet so you can remember it, but don’t fill out those 100 prompt character sheets because, in my opinion, they’re a waste of time. I’m trying not to make this too long (it’s already long asf, I’m sorry T-T), so if you’d like me to go into detail on what I think you should know about your character(s), or what you should put in your character sheet, I would be 1000% willing to elaborate. I also have a character sheet that I made and use for every project and I would be willing to share it if you think it would be of help to you!

Also, just to touch on drafting a bit because that’s something I find people get stuck on, remember that the first draft does not need to be perfect. My sixth book took 5 drafts and 8 edits before it felt right because there was a lot of detail and things that I either came up with after the first draft was completed, changed, or altered.

Here are some other fun things that I do when I am planning, outlining, and drafting: Pinterest boards!! I make a Pinterest board with sections. It is so helpful to get a feel of what the aesthetic of your book is, what your characters look like, and what their aesthetics are, and can help tremendously with world-building if you need to (I can totally give you advice on that too if you need it!). Music playlists are super great too. Sometimes I just make a full novel playlist, and sometimes I also make playlists for certain important characters. I listen to these playlists while I’m world-building, outlining, and drafting because it helps me get in the mindset of the novel. It can also be helpful if you're writing multiple POVs. Another thing I do is attach certain songs to certain scenes of my novel, which is super fun (ex: a high-stakes action scene could have a song like Run Boy Run by Woodkid attached to it). Notion is probably the greatest app ever created. I use it for everything, including world-building, character sheets, plotting/outlining, writing schedules, and writing/word count tracking which is super helpful if you’re trying to stick to a specific schedule. It’s literally amazing because you have everything in one place. You can also write your novel in Notion (I know a few people who do), but, to be honest, I don’t recommend that.

I’m sorry that this is so long, but I’m super excited for you. Writing a novel is literally the most exciting and rewarding thing ever. No matter how many I write, I never get tired of it. I hope that it’s as fun for you as it is for me and I hope that the information I’ve provided will be helpful! Again, if you need me to elaborate on anything, I am more than willing to because, if you haven’t noticed, I love to talk about this.

Sharing in case there’s anyone else out there that needs this as well!!

Oh. My. Goodness does this make me feel more confident.

I’d love some more about character sheets.

One thing I’m really struggling on is making the antagonist likable but not… too likable. But maybe half of the fun is maybe having a split decision here.

Another thing: I’m so freaked out about making my main girl too bland. Cause I’ve read so many where they have no personality and then there are some where there’s too much personality and I get way too mad at her. But I think I need to take a breath and let things flow the way they’re meant to.

One important question: how much dialogue to you is too much? I feel like I’m a big dialogue type author which is a blessing and a curse. Like you can reveal things about people purely on the things they say and I feel like that’s better than spelling out blatant facts to the reader

I’m sure most of my questions are just dependent on the author’s preference but still

Any thoughts you have about ANYTHING, I will HAPPILY take into consideration

[dailysonadowfanfics]

Reading every single Sonadow Fanfic (Ao3): 68/4.648

Title: Deepest Desire

Author: Tirainy

Website: Ao3

Published: 28.07.2016

Word Count: 122.591 words

Suited for minors? Teen and up

Warnings: Dun con (kissing and touching)

Smut? No (bit it does get a little suggestive)

Finished? No (I wish it was)

Characters: Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower, Rouge the Bat, Amy Rose, Doctor Eggman, Knuckles the Echidna ...

Ships: Sonic/Shadow

Author Tags: Sonadow - Freeform, Romance, Adventure, Adventure & Romance, Eventual Romance, Slow Burn, Wordcount: Over 50.000

Author Summary: Dr. Eggman invented a serum that will make the injected person act upon their deepest desire. He believed that Shadow's was to kill Sonic. Boy, how wrong he was...

My summary: I think you can probably already guess where this is going from the summary above. Shadow obvious doesn't want to kill Sonic. He just wants to have him. Which makes Sonic come to some own conclusions about his feelings, while they are all working on a solution to the problem. This story isn't finished (sadly), but it's really good, and it's still worth reading.

You can read it here

[omegaverse-guide]

Do you have any recs for some really long/emotional/good omegaverse fics? I fear that I enjoy emotions and plot along with my smut which can be hard to find. Tumblr or Ao3 are fine I just want something good to read and you seem like you’ve read a lot :)

I have, indeed, read a lot!

it's still a bit difficult to rec you anything - I'm not sure how much you'll get out of reading fic of fandoms you're not in, and I'm (shamefully, I know, I know) not in the biggest fandoms usually... like I haven't even seen supernatural where omegaverse was named! I've only watched minimal amounts of star trek and never read any fic! I've been on tumblr for over a decade and I've confidently passed by all of superwholock as well as homestuck, and basically everything else I've seen flood my dash. sorry.

with that said...

This is the series by Evilpixie that actually got me into omegaverse. I still follow some of its worldbuilding when I write my own omegaverse fics, years and years later. It's superbat, so I figure you'll at least know who superman and batman are, vaguely, which is enough for the first two fics in the series iirc, though you might have to google some robin backstories for the later fics if you get that far. the series is 450k so definitely long enough to keep you occupied for a while if you choose to read!

I'll also recommend Kingfisher's Refuge by LaVERose. It's a haikyuu fic, but set in a complete AU, and most important characters save for the main ship are OCs anyway, so you should be able to have a good time not knowing anything about haikyuu, and it's a meaty 150k.

...yeah, off the top of my head, that's kinda it. ^^; the thing with plot heavy fics is that they tend to expect you to be familiar with the source material, and know like at least 20 different characters and their backstories and relationships because why else would you be reading a 100k+ fic of them if you're not obsessed...

my tip would be to go on ao3 and look for the ship (or fandom if you're into smaller scale stuff), use the alpha/beta/omega dynamics tag, and sort by fic length, then see if any of the top results seem at all appealing to you.

[whackacole3]

i noticed a lot of people chose over 100k for my poll on preferred fic lengths so i wanted to get a more specific one! please reblog this again for a larger sample size?

[jessepinwheel]

reading survey question...2!

If your answer is even higher than this I think you're lying but feel free to tell us how absurdly long a story needs to be before you'll deign to call it long, you madman.

For reference, "novel-length" is generally the 40k to 120k range.

[digital-chance]

Happy Storyteller Saturday, Chance!

A question about your writing process this week: when you start a new project, do you do it with a word goal in mind? How strict is the word goal and how close to you get to it? Are you an over- or under-writer?

Thank you for the question! Sorry for taking so long, you asked this a bit ago, but I finally got to it!!

For the most part I don't think about a specific wordcount for any of my stories. I think of how long I want it in more general terms;

scene (which would be 100-3k)

short story (would b 3-20k)

actual book length (20k-100k)

what the fuck am I doing to myself (150k+)

(This isn't any actual/professional way to split it up, it's just what I've come up with mentally lol)

If I do set a word count, it'll be something like above's estimates, but I try to keep it flexible. I don't prefer to set harsh goals/deadlines on myself unless I absolutely have to. I tend to over-write (as you can see here LMAO) and edit out when I need to. I've noticed I tend to write more when I'm writing mental thoughts of characters and other expositions. Dialogue and (certain) descriptions can be quite difficult to me, especially contrasted with those long expositions.

Thanks for the ask! Happy Halloween!

[maybeamultiverse]

Could you share some fic recs?

Sure! I honestly haven't really been reading any new fics. Lately, IRL life stuff got too consuming, and I don't have the time or attention span right now. Tbh, I don't really gravitate that much toward short-form stories, and I only really want to read novel-type stuff.

I definitely will recommend a couple of full/novel-length (completed only) fics from a couple of fandoms that I absolutely love and have reread a few times, just so I don't end up listing like 100 different things.

No Winter Lasts Forever by TomFooleryPrime (303k words) -- the fic that made me get into Star Trek fan fiction when I read it for the first time. One of the best fics I've ever read, period. A human woman accidentally gets pregnant by a Vulcan doctor, and they move to a remote colony to try to make it work. Excellence.

The Goblin Market by ViciouslyWitty (119k words) -- a Labyrinth (1986) Sarah x Jareth fic, explores events post-film while Sarah is a graduate student in Ireland and Jareth makes his dramatic return... truly an aesthetic, absolutely entrancing, and literally pure mythological fantasy. Plus, there's smut in the end, so there's payoff lol.

The Romulan General's Woman by KKGlinka (105k words) -- a story about Volskiar and Tasha Yar's relationship. It's just super well-written and definitely a real niche story (currently locked and only viewable by ao3 users atm). A must-read for anyone into Romulans.

Vulcan by sunshinepiveh (235k words) -- a story about a Vulcan and human cadet who meet at Starfleet and fall in love. It's honestly pretty cute, and the sex scenes are pretty well written when they happen, lol (warning: there is piss, but not that much).

A Case Study by redrose639 (102k words) -- Amanda Greyson and Sarek's meeting explained. This is probably one of the best Amanda x Sarek 'origin stories' I've found that is completed on ao3 so far. Really super, super good.

Desire/Reserve by Herself_nyc (81k words) -- Excellently written Kirk/Spock smut. Super gorgeously written, split into two parts. Sets the standard!

The Castaways Series by Cheree_Cargill (550k words) -- Spock and Chapel deserted on an abandoned planet, survivalist/smut type thing, not my favorite ship in general, but the smut is very well-written, and the world-building is really genuinely excellent, especially for something that becomes very OC-heavy later on, and it works!

The Elder's Mate by Skadi_Gemini (111k words) -- Yautja x OC. Just forced pregnancy and Yautja stuff. A pretty fun and chill read that I enjoyed.

like warriors from the ancient sagas by fm1978 (150k words) -- it's literally LOTR/The Hobbit meets Star Trek... what more could one possibly want?!?

HAL9550W造谣合集 by Monkey2nd (100k words) -- this is a "rumor collection" of stories, an AMAZING crossover of The Wandering Earth and 2001: A Space Oddysey, basically just explores the two main AI 'villains' in each franchise talking to each other about life, philosophy, and what it means or doesn't mean to be human. Literally BRILLIANT (this story is written in Chinese, but it's translatable on your browser on ao3).

[themarydragon]

I got tagged by the fantastic @jenseits-der-sterne which is lovely, thank you. Nobody ever tags me, and I love these damn things. <3  <3  <3

Most hits: Calm Waters Run Deep, or CWRD, with 146,084 hits (as of today) which is just…? I don’t even know, guys. It’s one of the shortest multi-chapter works I’ve ever posted, so for it to be pushing 150k views across only 11 chapters (and its, you know, six years old) is just nuts to me. I keep hearing that people are finding it rec’d on reddit? Which, also, blows my poor mind. I love that it is so loved. Writing that probably saved my life.

Second most kudos: The Quiet River Rages, tQRR, which is part 3 of Trouble the Water (CWRD, part 1, has the most kudos). I feel like Trouble the Water is just what I’m going to be known for, as a fic writer, and I am totally down for that.

Third most comments: CWRD again, with my #3 spot for comment threads! tQRR has more comments, which makes sense (since a lot of people wait and comment at the end) but my #1 here is Keep to the Stars, which makes my heart glad. I’ve got over 200 comments on Chapter 11 of CWRD, and my favorites are where someone wanted to say SOMETHING ELSE but got short-circuited by the cruel way I ended the chapter. This is also why I have a “tears of my readers” mug.

Fourth most bookmarks: Remember the Spring, the middle installment of TtW and one of my only one-shots. TQRR (#3) and CWRD (#1) also show up here, with KttS as #2. I’m actually stupendously proud of Remember the Spring, and I’m going to be revisiting this style for the totk fics I’m writing I plan to write this winter. I have them outlined and they’re written in my HEAD doesn’t that count?

Fifth most words: Okay so I’m verbose. The #5 spot is Loved and Lost with 90k. I have 1.3 million words on AO3, I’m a wordy bitch. I almost went through and edited the hell out of Loved and Lost so it would be closer in length to Lost and Found (the other half of that fic) but @kathsilver helped talk me out of it. Thanks again for that, kath. <3  My top 4 all have 100K+ (Steel Your Heart at 105k, Higgins’ Song [my beloved][my favorite child][do me a favor and go read about Higgins] at 152k, and Will to Live [god I miss Twitch imma go read that this weekend] at 186k). But my monster is Keep to the Stars, at over a quarter-mil (290k). And honestly it should have been longer, Steel Your Heart should have just ran right along with it but I started writing before the DLC dropped so it is what it is.

Least words is in Promise Kept, which is my one shot of vignettes of a DA:I Inquisitor Cadash and her unrequited relationship with Varric Tethras. I love them and I regret nothing.

Almost all my mutuals are fic writers so if you can see this, I’m interested in your stats. Consider yourself tagged. <3